Aston Martin have announced they will enter their Valkyrie hypercar into the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2025.
The British sports car brand has been a mainstay in WEC’s GTE class, but hasn’t attempted to compete at the top level since 2011, when it produced the unsuccessful AMR-One. While the Valkyrie has been developed for racing, it was not clear until now what Aston Martin’s plans for the car would be.American team Heart of Racing has been chosen to run the Valkyrie in its first year of racing, and it will be entered not only into WEC but also North America’s IMSA series.
No commitment has been made on how many chassis will be on track, but there will be at least one Valkyrie hypercar active in both series for the 2025 season. The car has been developed utilising some of the facilities and engineering nous at Aston Martin’s Formula 1 base in Silverstone.
“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years,” said Lawrence Stroll, chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda.
“Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.”
Aston Martin confirmed the Valkyrie will be homologated “ahead of the 2025 season” and not before then. The Valkyrie is powered by a 6.5-litre V12 engine from Cosworth, and the race-ready version of the car will do without its hybrid power system.
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Nick T.
4th October 2023, 18:10
This could provide a soft landing / dignified exit for Stroll if he decides he’s no longer motivated or the AM organization starts actually pressuring Lawrence to move him aside.
Dan (@gobert)
4th October 2023, 18:47
My thoughts exactly!
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th October 2023, 19:32
They’ve got a 2-time Le Mans winner on their books too… wonder if he’ll be sick of trying to win a Grand Prix in a Jordan by 2025.
sumedh
5th October 2023, 7:43
And probably get Liam Lawson into the F1 team!
Sam
4th October 2023, 19:52
Both WEC and IMSA keep growing in strength. I strongly recommend both series. I really think they are in a golden era.
MichaelN
4th October 2023, 20:49
Would have agreed after Le Mans. They nailed the BoP there, and there was a great race for the win between numerous manufacturers who each led the race on pace and merit for a while. But they have to find a better way to handle the BoP on the more ‘normal’ tracks they spend the rest of the season on, because this season has seen quite significant gaps between teams, and the subsequent adjustments have led to a pretty negative response due to how gimmicky and manipulated it makes everything seem. It’s obviously not an easy job, especially with ever more cars in the mix, but they have to step this up and do better. A BoP series is fine if it’s actually balanced, and race craft, race management, and race execution determine the winners. But without that balance, it quickly becomes a case of the FIA/ACO being perceived as ‘picking’ winners.
Anyway, good to see Aston Martin reboot this project.
StephenH
5th October 2023, 15:22
YES !! Finally …. If only WEC could get a UK Terrestrial TV deal …